The power of media and communications unleashed

A Grain Of Rice
by Darlene Zagata

In the wonderful world of technology the debate of morals and ethics wages on. The newest topic in the spotlight is a chip which can be inserted under the skin of an individual's hand. The company manufacturing the chip says that it is the size of a grain of rice and would be invisible and cause no discomfort to the recipient.

Arguments in favor of the chip claim that it would be a positive addition to both the medical and law enforcement communities. The manufacturers of the chip state that used as a tracking device the chip would aid law enforcement officials in locating kidnap victims. On the medical front, the chip would be able to track patients with Alzheimers disease who have wandered away from their homes or secure areas. It would also be able to assist in emergency care for those who suffer from most health conditions such as heart disease, diabetes and epilepsy. The miniscule device would contain all pertinent information needed such as the person's medical history, allergies, medication and personal information such as name, address, phone number and age which would be invaluable in getting the person immediate and proper care and to identify a patient and contact family members.

This may sound like a heaven sent solution to many crime and health problems but some religionists may beg to differ, relating the chip to the mark of the beast described in the Bible's book of Revelation. It is not just the religionists who raise issues about the chip but many others are skeptical over the actual function of the device as well. Concerns are being raised over the repercussions the chip could have in the long run. Though the manufacturers claim the chip would have no lasting side effects, it has yet to be FDA approved. In fact, once that stamp of approval has been given, the chip will rapidly begin to make it's mark (pardon the pun) on society.

Despite the religious and other obvious concerns, there are many individuals who are eager to purchase this latest piece of hardware. Like the newest car or appliance, they want to be the first on the block to possess it. The question is whether the chip will be in their possession or will they be in the chip's possession. Although the actual price for this device may or may not yet have been determined (sources differ on this), some sources have hinted at a figure of around two-hundred dollars. At that price, the chip becomes readily accessible to those who are eager to participate in this new technology. Once purchased, the chip may be taken to the recipient's family doctor for implantation. The proceedure is said to be done in the doctor's office where the chip is then inserted beneath the skin through a needle with relative speed and ease.

A large concern for many is the lack of privacy. The makers of the chip have even stated that the device could track a person's every movement. Another concern is that the use of the device will become mandatory at some time in the future, although advocates of the chip claim that this is just sheer nonsense and plain paranoia. They reassure us that the use of the device is strictly voluntary and will remain so. But can they really make such a claim with absolute certainity? We have seen examples of how power can corrupt and what could happen if technology falls into the wrong hands. Once again we are left with unanswered questions as to the road our future will take as the debate begins to heat over the latest technological advancement.

Is this miniscule device a savior of sorts or is it the mark of the beast? For now, we can only debate and pray that this technology will be used for the benefit of humankind, not to it's detriment.

Darlene Zagata may be contacted at http://pages.ivillage.com/celia721/ darlene31487@yahoo.com. Click here to view more of their articles.

Darlene Zagata is a freelance writer and mother of four children. Her work has appeared in several electronic and print publications. Darlene is the Managing Editor of RITRO.com and she co-authors a column with her son at RaisingASon.com. She is also a Review Editor for MyShelf.com and an Editorial Reviewer for The Writer's Room Magazine. Her book of poetry "Aftertaste" is available at Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble. Her first book of fiction, "The Choosing" is currently in the process of publication.

Thank you for visiting Just About Media. Your privacy is important to us. To better protect your privacy, we provide this notice explaining our online information practices and the choices you can make about the way your information is collected and used at this site.

OUR COMMITMENT TO PRIVACY

Just About Media (“JAM”) and its subsidiaries are committed to controlling the collection, use and disclosure of the personal information provided by its customers.

A SINGLE POLICY

The JAM Companies referred to in this Privacy Statement and governed by the JAM Privacy Policy.
Any time you do business with a JAM Company, or with anyone acting as an agent on our behalf, you are protected by the rights and safeguards contained in the JAM Privacy Policy.

WHAT IS PERSONAL INFORMATION?

"Personal information" is personally identifiable information such as your name, residential address and e-mail address and includes information about your product and service subscriptions and usage, credit information and billing records, service and recorded complaints.

Personal information is collected by the JAM Companies only when you specifically and knowingly choose to provide it us such as when you subscribe to a JAM publication, enter a JAM promotion or choose to receive information, products or services from a JAM Company. We may also receive personal information from our business partners and other third parties provided that such third parties confirm to us that they have obtained your consent to the disclosure of your personal information.

Publicly available information, such as a public directory listing of your name, address, telephone number and electronic address, is not considered personal information.

COLLECTION AND USE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

At some JAM sites, you can order products, enter contests, vote in polls or otherwise express an opinion, subscribe to one of our services such as our online newsletters, or participate in one of our online forums or communities. The types of personally identifiable information that may be collected at these pages include: name, address, e-mail address, telephone number, fax number, credit card information, and information about your interests in and use of various products, programs, and services.
At some other JAM sites, you can submit information about other people. For example, you might submit a person's name and e-mail address to send an electronic greeting card and, if you order a gift online and want it sent directly to the recipient, you might submit the recipient's name and address. The types of personally identifiable information that may be collected about other people at these pages include: recipient's name, address, e-mail address, and telephone number.
At certain parts of some of our sites, only persons who provide us with the requested personally identifiable information will be able to order products, programs, and services or otherwise participate in the site's activities and offerings.
We also may collect certain non-personally identifiable information when you visit many of our web pages such as the type of browser you are using (e.g., Netscape, Internet Explorer), the type of operating system you are using, (e.g., Windows '95 or Mac OS) and the domain name of your Internet service provider (e.g., America Online, Earthlink).

The JAM Companies may also contact you from time to time to conduct market research and surveys in an effort to continually improve our product and service offerings.

Unless you specifically authorize us to release your personal information, or release is required or permitted by law, the JAM Companies will not sell, lease or trade your personal information to other third parties.

Anonymous or "non-personal" information gathered by the JAM Companies through our websites may be used for technical, research and analytical purposes. Information collected through surveys, existing files and public archives may be used by the JAM Companies to analyze their markets and to develop or enhance service offerings.

JAM Companies will only ask for information about you that we need and will only ask for it when we need it. When we ask you for the information, we will explain to you why we need it and what we are going to do with it.

We will seek your prior consent to the collection, use and disclosure of the information as required by applicable privacy legislation. Subject to legal and contractual requirements, you can refuse to consent to our collection, use or disclosure of information about you. You may also withdraw your consent to any further collection, use or disclosure of information about you at any time by giving us reasonable notice. If our intended disclosures or uses of information change, we will notify you accordingly.

Your personal information will not be used for any other purpose without your consent.

HOW WE USE INFORMATION

We may use the information you provide about yourself to fulfill your requests for our products, programs, and services, to respond to your inquiries about our offerings, and to offer you other products, programs or services that we believe may be of interest to you.
We sometimes use this information to communicate with you, such as to notify you when you have won one of our contests or when we make changes to our subscriber agreements, to fulfill a request by you for an online newsletter, or to contact you about your account with us.
We use the information that you provide about others to enable us to send them your gifts or cards. From time to time, we also may use this information to offer our products, programs, or services to them.
The information we collect in connection with our online forums and communities is used to provide an interactive experience. We use this information to facilitate participation in these online forums and communities and, from time to time, to offer you products, programs, or services.
We sometimes use the non-personally identifiable information that we collect to improve the design and content of our site and to enable us to personalize your Internet experience. We also may use this information in the aggregate to analyze site usage, as well as to offer you products, programs, or services.
We may disclose personally identifiable information in response to legal process, for example, in response to a court order or a subpoena. We also may disclose such information in response to a law enforcement agency's request, or where we believe it is necessary to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, situations involving potential threats to the physical safety of any person, violations of our terms of use, or as otherwise required by law. In addition, we may transfer information about you if we are acquired by or merged with another company.
Agents and contractors of JAM who have access to personally identifiable information are required to protect this information in a manner that is consistent with this Privacy Notice by, for example, not using the information for any purpose other than to carry out the services they are performing for JAM.
Although we take appropriate measures to safeguard against unauthorized disclosures of information, we cannot assure you that personally identifiable information that we collect will never be disclosed in a manner that is inconsistent with this Privacy Notice.
Certain JAM sites may disclose personally identifiable information to companies whose practices are not covered by this privacy notice (e.g., other marketers, magazine publishers, retailers, participatory databases, and non-profit organizations) that want to market products or services to you. If a site shares personally identifiable information, it will provide you with an opportunity to opt out or block such uses.
Finally, the JAM sites covered by this Privacy Notice will not use or transfer personally identifiable information provided to us in ways unrelated to the ones described above without also providing you with an opportunity to opt out of these unrelated uses.

DISCLOSURE

To enable us to more efficiently provide the products and services you have requested from us, the JAM Companies may share your personal information with other JAM Companies and with selected third parties who are acting on our behalf as our agents, suppliers or service providers. Such third party service providers are provided only with such information as is necessary in the circumstances (i.e. your residential address may be disclosed to our distributors and carriers for the purpose of delivering your daily newspaper subscription). Information provided to third parties may be used only for the purpose stipulated and is subject to strict terms of confidentiality.

USE OF COOKIES AND WEB BEACONS

The JAM Companies use a browser feature called a "cookie" to collect information anonymously and track user patterns on JAM websites. A cookie is a small text file that is placed on your hard disk by a website which enhances your experience with our sites, many of our web pages use "cookies." "Cookies" contain a unique identification number that identifies your browser, but not you, to our computers each time you visit one of our websites. Cookies tell us which pages of our websites are visited and by how many people.

The use of cookies is an industry standard and many major browsers are initially set up to accept them. You can reset your browser to either refuse to accept all cookies or to notify you when you have received a cookie. However, if you refuse to accept cookies, you may not be able to use some of the features available on our websites.
Cookies, by themselves, do not tell us your e-mail address or other personally identifiable information unless you choose to provide this information to us by, for example, registering at one of our sites. However, once you choose to furnish the site with personally identifiable information, this information may be linked to the data stored in the cookie.
We use cookies to understand site usage and to improve the content and offerings on our sites. For example, we may use cookies to personalize your experience at our web pages (e.g., to recognize you by name when you return to our site), save your password in password-protected areas, and enable you to use shopping carts on our sites. We also may use cookies to offer you products, programs, or services.
"Web beacons" or clear .gifs are small pieces of code placed on a web page to monitor the behavior and collect data about the visitors viewing a web page. For example, web beacons can be used to count the users who visit a web page or to deliver a cookie to the browser of a visitor viewing that page. We may use web beacons on this site from time to time for this and other purposes.

ACCURACY

We have put in place appropriate physical, electronic, and managerial procedures to safeguard and help prevent unauthorized access, maintain data security, and correctly use the information we collect online. In the event you have questions about the accuracy of factual information we have collected, you will have access to that information in order to verify and update it. If we have disclosed inaccurate information about you to a third party, we will be pleased to contact the third party in order to correct the information.

COLLECTION OF INFORMATION

Some of our sites contain links to other sites whose information practices may be different than ours. Visitors should consult the other sites' privacy notices as we have no control over information that is submitted to, or collected by, these third parties.
The JAM sites covered by this Privacy Notice sometimes may offer content (e.g., contests, sweepstakes, or promotions) that is sponsored by or cobranded with identified third parties. By virtue of these relationships, the third parties may obtain personally identifiable information that visitors voluntarily submit to participate in the site activity. JAM has no control over these third parties' use of this information. The JAM site will notify you at the time of requesting personally identifiable information if these third parties will obtain such information.
Some of the JAM sites covered by this Privacy Notice may use a reputable third party to present or serve the advertisements that you may see at its Web pages. These third party ad servers may use cookies, web beacons, clear .gifs or similar technologies to help present such advertisements, and to help measure and research the advertisements' effectiveness. The use of these technologies by these third party ad servers is subject to their own privacy policies and is not covered by our privacy policy. For more information on this site's use of such third-party ad servers, please contact us.
LIMITING USE, DISCLOSURE AND RETENTION Personal information shall not be used or disclosed for purposes other than those for which it was collected, except with the consent of the individual or as required by law. Personal information shall be retained only as long as necessary for the fulfillment of the purposes for which it was collected.

QUESTIONS OR CONCERNS

If you have any questions or concerns about the personal information about you held by a JAM Company or about the compliance by a JAM Company with the JAM Privacy Policy, please contact us at privacy@justaboutmedia.com.

Each JAM Company has procedures in place to receive and respond to complaints or inquiries about its handling of personal information. They will describe the complaint procedures to anyone who makes inquiries or lodges complaints.

If you are not satisfied with the response from us after making a complaint, you may have recourse to additional remedies under applicable privacy legislation.

UPDATES AND EFFECTIVE DATES

From time to time, we may update this privacy notice. We will notify you about material changes in the way we treat personally identifiable information by placing a notice on our site. We encourage you to periodically check back and review this policy so that you always will know what information we collect, how we use it, and to whom we disclose it.

The Privacy Notice posted on this site was updated on or about July 20, 2004.